24 hours to mild dejection

‘Why did I ever agree to this?’ I thought blearily, seconds before collapsing into bed.

My back ached, my fingers were blistered, and I hadn’t slept in maybe years. And I was a little bit dejected.

To get to the reason behind my state, we need to rewind 36 hours, from late afternoon on a Saturday to early Friday morning, when I made my way to Dubai Autodrome’s Kartdrome.

I’ve been to the Kartdrome countless times before, but this wasn’t an arrive and drive session or a 20-minute sprint race. This was the NFM Endurance Challenge, a 24-hour-long slog through petrol fumes and tiredness.

I was heading up a crack team of media drivers – me, Tom, Dimitri, Gautam and Floyd – as well as John, a man who’s competed in the much-more hardcore Rotax Max series. He would be our ringer.

This race, much like the SWS Sprint Races I compete in, uses identical rental-spec karts, meaning that anyone can take part, not just those with the cash to buy their own machines. It would be the third event of its kind that I’d competed in, and the second as team captain. This race was the second round of the Endurance Challenge season and in the first our team, the Mediaboltz, had finished a very creditable 12th out of about 30. I’ve done plenty of karting since then so I was confident that we could improve.

The day began at 8am when I met up with the team at the Kartdrome. Well, most of the team anyway. Two members were horribly late, but I won’t shame them here. Despite these difficult financial times it was still an impressive turnout – there were 26 teams and around 200 drivers, many of whom had travelled from far and wide to compete. As well as plenty of UAE drivers there were teams from Russia, France, Switzerland, Germany and Bahrain, as well as an all-female Italian team (right) that garnered particular attention from the most male competitors.

We signed up, weighed in and then as team captain I selected our kart number at random. Lucky number 13. Good thing I’m not superstitious.

After a safety briefing, it was time to set up our pit garage, our home for the next 24 hours. Many of the teams went to great lengths to be comfortable during the event, bringing in carpets, bunk beds and sofas to recline on. Being made of sturdy stuff we didn’t care for such niceties and made do with some camping chairs, an inflatable mattress and a table that Floyd appropriated from somewhere. Aside from that, we had our pit board and a big pile of numbers, and a white board upon which to plan our strategy.

Everything unfolded and inflated, it was time get ready for the practice session. Only John had all his own gear, and looked resplendent in all white. The rest of us, with some age-old Autodrome race suits and rather bashed rental helmets, looked less so when compared to some of the other teams. Although all standards of driver are accepted, there were plenty of experience kart racers and even some proper championship-winning car racing drivers, all with svelte racing suits and personalised helmets.

Undaunted, we each set out on track to get warmed up. I decided that the fastest in practice would qualify for us, and this turned out to be Gautam, who was slightly quicker than Dimitri and John.

Very quickly, qualifying was upon us. Gautam went out and it became immediately clear that the overall standard of driver at this race was a lot higher than the last. I’d hoped to finish in the top 10, but it would be difficult. Right up until the last two minutes, we were down in 22nd place out of 26. Then on the last lap the G-Man managed to push harder and we qualified in 17th place.

There was time for a final briefing and then it was race time. We decided to send Gautam out first, but as the UAE national flag dropped and 26 karts streaked towards the first corner, he found himself pushed down the field. At the end of the first lap he was 21st. But then he showed his mettle, and pushed back. After an hour he came in to change, having pushed us up to mid-table. I was a happy captain.

Our next fastest drivers, John and Dimitri, took the next stints, and they did brilliantly. A few hours into the race, we were up to eighth at one point.

My first stint didn’t happen until hour five, with night having fallen. It went well. I’ve been around the Autodrome often enough to know the track inside out, although a re-profiled turn two caused me a few problems. The new corner, a tight right-hand hairpin, is much earlier than before, and I kept braking too late. Dimitri, who turned out to be our fastest driver in the race by some margin, suggested almost sliding around the bend in order to face the right direction earlier. I managed it on a couple of occasions and it seemed faster, but it was hard to get right even as the night progressed. It was also clear that the number of good drivers vastly outnumbered the not-so-good. Even the corporate teams, of which there were several, were dramatically better than the last round, and amidst the hard fought battles I had to be careful not to annoy the many faster drivers than me that were trying to lap us.

After around six hours, we were sitting in 10th place and things were looking good. But then problems started slipping in. As Floyd came in for his first stint, he forgot to turn into the fuel bay to top up on gas. With the tank nearly empty, we had no option but to push him back, wasting at least a lap’s worth of time in the process. We also went over the hour limit for stints, and incurred a time penalty.

This happened again later on, during one of my stints. The pit board, usually used to display my lap time, was held out with IN written on it, but as I flashed by it I only saw the time. I did another two laps before the team twigged and took the time display off, so that by the time I eventually saw the instruction and pitted, we had once again gone over our time and incurred another time penalty.

These penalties were added to the timing screen at 2am, around the time of the mandatory technical inspection. This was the time when, feeling absolutely shattered after 12 hours of driving and strategising, I was trying to have a nap. When I returned after just an hour, we had dropped down to 17th place, several laps behind the team ahead of us.

There followed a frantic game of catch up. The quick drivers went out again and, in fairness to them, drove like champions to bring the gap down to less than a lap to the team ahead. But then as the early signs of dawn began to appear, cracks started to show. Tom, the only 24-hour rookie in our team, began to slow dramatically and his lap times started to rise. I brought him in early and he later said that lack of sleep were affecting him as he started to miss braking points and mess up his lines.

It’s easily done. I managed just a single hour of dozing during the whole race, and in my final stint started to make silly mistakes that I wouldn’t have done while fresh.

I tried to give everyone in our team equal time on track, but some of the top teams sent their best drivers out over and over again – I have no idea how some of them coped. Not only do you need to be very adept at grabbing sleep, you also need to be very fit indeed. As mentioned in previous blogs, I was aching after my earlier sprint races, and by the time 2pm came around on day two, my lower back was in serious pain. Only free massages provided by the race sponsors kept me going.

With the 24 hours drawing to an end, we were still a good lap behind our nearest rivals and it became clear that we weren’t going to catch them. In the end we finished in 18th, one place behind our qualifying position.

I can’t understate the amount that such an event takes out of you. The race might be 24 hours, but the day itself is more than 36 when you factor in set up and packing up time. Everyone in our team – even those that managed to catch some sleep – was absolutely shattered. I got home at around 3.30pm and spent the rest of the day sleeping.

It wasn’t the top 10 finish I’d hoped for, but I’d not counted on some silly organisational mistakes and a much-improved standard of competition. Taking the pluses out of the result, several of our team got new personal best times and, as always, it was a lot of fun, with a great social atmosphere. And without disappointments, there are no highs.

Round three of the Endurance Challenge is in December, and I intend for the Mediaboltz to dramatically improve.